First day at school

…and also her last there!

When we went for a look around a week or so ago, the regular teacher was not there as she was attending a funeral so yesterday was the first time we had met her.

We’d really liked what we’d seen on the day the teacher was absent and were very excited and keen for Megs to start.

However, yesterday was a totally different story. When we got there, the teacher insisted on taking a register- no problem for mainstream kids but for disabled kids-particularly those in the ASD spectrum- a 15 minute register taking, including the teacher singing everyones name in turn is simply stupid.

The kids were bored stiff and consequently a few got fidgety and went after toys/books etc- only to get told off by this teacher and forcibly returned to their chairs. This spun the whole farce out over an additional few minutes.

Next up was painting- however each child was only allowed 10 mins at the painting and consequently, each child was again upset after being removed from the area. So they were taken to a ‘sensory room’. For those unfamiliar with such things, a sensory room is basically, lots of soothing lights/water/music combined in a softroom. All the kids absolutely love this. But- not for long- 10 mins and they were (again, forcibly) dragged out.

Now they were all sat at a table and asked to request a drink and piece of fruit. No problems here and possibly the most positive thing we’d seen.

After this, the kids were allowed out to play in the playground- at three times during this period Naomi and I were left alone with the kids- not that we mind but for all they knew we could’ve been anyone! I watched a little boy (a mischevous little sprite with ADD) push Megan over 3 times (he got a whack for his trouble- she’s a big girl, our Megs) and the teacher didn’t spot this once!

Finally, the last ‘activity’ of the afternoon was watching Tom and Jerry cartoons. Not exactly what I had in mind for Megs’ education.

One of the things that I found most disturbing throughout this whole afternoon was that there was another little girl a year older than Megan who was almost identical in terms of how she behaved and her disability and not once-not once!- did anyone speak to her for the whole time we were there other than to ask her what she wanted to drink. This littel girl was far from stupid and knew exactly what was going on. I called her name when they were all playing outside and she came straight over to me and sat smiling with me on a bench and we played with her ball together- I felt so sorry for this neglected child.

When we left (we declined the offer to attend a 20 minute ‘assembly’) Naomi and I were totally shell-shocked. Kids need limits and they need to be given rules and boundries and these things need to be enforced but this was madness in our opinion- the kids for the most part, when they weren’t crying were totally silent. Megan kept up a steady stream of chatter all afternoon- it wasn’t too hard to imagine her falling completely silent after a month or two of this educational establishment.

So- back to the LEA we’ll go and the whole merry go around will start again no doubt. We’re so very disappointed. This took absolutely ages to sort out and we really felt we (or Megan) was on our way. Ah well.